"Transport XI""Small-scale electronic devices, the size of a bacterium or even a hundred times smaller, inevitably have minute imperfections, which cause electrons to scatter and spread out as they progress through the device. We recently discovered that the electrons tend to bunch up and form branches, as is seen in many of the Transport images. In this image, the electrons are launched over a very small range of initial angles, represented by the narrow "stems". Small initial differences in angle grow quickly, as evidenced by the fanning out and branching of electron paths. This is the beginning of the eventual chaotic motion of these electrons. Note that some branches cross. This implies that the branches are not following specific valleys in the landscape, but are subject to indirect effects caused by focusing as electrons travel over bumps and hills. In Transport XI individual electron paths can be seen as bright lines, but if many electrons go over the same region the coloring scheme makes the image darker."

"Fractal Geometric Valley
""This microscape image was digitally stitched together from multiple (FEI)field emission gun scans or more commonly know (SEM)Scanning Electron Microscope scans. The base surface in this picture is made of highly aligned, dense zinc oxide nanorods, which were grown inside a tube furnace system by oxidizing zinc foil at temperature of 500-600 Celsius degree. The higher, complex structures are also made from zinc oxide, which were grown from by absorbing the reactants from the vapor."

"innerspace4
""This microscape image was digitally stitched together from multiple (FEI)field emission gun scans or more commonly know (SEM)Scanning Electron Microscope scans. The balls in this picture are germanium and the wires are zinc oxide. They were fabricated inside a tube furnace system at temperature of 900-1000 Celsius degree. The source materials for this synthesis are zinc oxide powder, germanium powder and graphite powder. At the reaction temperature, zinc oxide and germanium oxide powders were reduced by graphite through a reduction reaction, providing zinc and germanium sources for zinc oxide nanowires and germanium balls growth, respectively. In this growth, the germanium balls act as the catalyst which direct the zinc oxide nanowires growth to finally sitting on the top of the nanowires. The diameter of the germanium balls is in the range of 1 to 5 micrometers and the diameter of the zinc oxide nanowires is in the range of 100 to 200 nanometers."

These paintings are based on electron micrographs of viruses and bacteria, just one aspect of my research into news-making maladies. By visualizing the microscopic I exercise control over the seemingly uncontrollable, separating phobia from aesthetic experience. Demystification and educated awareness are my primary goals.

"Label-free chemical imaging of drug delivery with SRS microscopy (1)""The top layer of the skin, the stratum corneum, is the main barrier for topically applied drugs. The understanding of the diffusion process is critical for the drug delivery. However, conventional Raman microscopy requires long averaging time and high laser power, where fluorescence microscope often requires dye labels that are bigger than drug molecules and alter drug efficacy and the diffusion characteristics. This figure shows SRS images of the penetration pathways for retinoic acid (top left) and DMSO (top right). Retinoic acid, a common drug for acne can be visualized by tuning the Raman shift into it characteristic band at 1570cm-1 (blue). Retinoic acid penetrates through the intercellular space between the polygonal corneocytes of the stratum corneum. DMSO, often used as a diffusion enhancer, penetrates deeper into the skin. It is hydrophilic and hence avoids lipid structures such as the adipocytes at a depth of ~65µm into the skin. This is highlighted using two-color SRS imaging tuned into the characteristic vibration of DMSO at 670cm-1 (green) and the CH2-vibration of typical adipocytes at 2845cm-1 (red). Three-dimensional sectioning capabilities, subcellular resolution and high sensitivity of SRS are critical for this study. (Image Courtesy of Chris Freudiger, Wei Min, Brain Saar, Harvard University)"

"Label-free chemical imaging of drug delivery with SRS microscopy (2)""The top layer of the skin, the stratum corneum, is the main barrier for topically applied drugs. The understanding of the diffusion process is critical for the drug delivery. However, conventional Raman microscopy requires long averaging time and high laser power, where fluorescence microscope often requires dye labels that are bigger than drug molecules and alter drug efficacy and the diffusion characteristics. This is an SRS image of the penetration pathway for DMSO. DMSO, often used as a diffusion enhancer, penetrates deep in the skin. It is hydrophilic and hence avoids lipid structures such as the adipocytes at a depth of ~65µm into the skin. This is highlighted using two-color SRS imaging tuned into the characteristic vibration of DMSO at 670cm-1 (green) and the CH2-vibration of typical adipocytes at 2845cm-1 (red). Three-dimensional sectioning capabilities, subcellular resolution and high sensitivity of SRS are critical for this study. (Image Courtesy of Chris Freudiger, Wei Min, Brain Saar, Harvard University)"

"In situ monitoring uptake of omega-3 fatty acids by mammalian cells.""Omega-3 fatty acids such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) are known to provide health benefits but can only be taken up through the diet. We used SRS microcopy to selectively image EPA by tuning into the characteristic Raman band at 3015cm-1 (purple), which is distinctly different from the band at 2930cm-1 (red). One can see how EPA is actively taken up from the culturing media and enriched in lipid droplets (right image) whereas saturated lipids are distributed in many other organelles and the cytoplasm (left image). This capability allows metabolism of Omega-3 fatty acids to be studied in real time in a live cell (Image Courtesy of Wei Min and Chris Freudiger, Harvard University) "